Posts By: Garrett Therrien

Shaking loose the fiction around earthquake safety codes

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When the big earthquake hits, will the buildings on campus survive? Earthquake retrofits or not, the answer is most likely no. It’s a common mistake to think that seismic retrofits (like the kind applied to Clearihue’s A-Wing about six years ago) will ‘save’ the building from an earthquake. In the case of a gentle shake,… Read more »

Who has time for love? Lust is much less commitment

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When we say love, what are we talking about? Porn is easy to find. Music videos are more and more explicit. The ‘hook-up’ has become accepted and normal. As I write this, #16 on the Billboard charts is a song called “Drunk in Love” by Beyoncé. “Drunk in love / we be all night /… Read more »

Paper beats pixels

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I hate online course delivery systems. They’re clumsy and inefficient, and they stress me out. Right now one of my instructors is apparently posting homework to his course page, not Moodle. Yes, you heard that right—there are two web pages for one course. There’s homework due today (at time of writing). Most of the class… Read more »

Dogmatic

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[Clarification: This opinion article was prompted in response to the off-leash dog park attached to UVic campus, primarily takes issue with the allocation of resources and care of public areas, and is the opinion of its author. The Martlet welcomes certified service dogs on campus.]   I’m barking mad. Yet another park in Oak Bay… Read more »

Reaching New Heights

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Imagine a solitary person walking out onto a soft, padded, stage in front of thousands of people. The crowd is oddly silent, even tense. He turns his back on the audience and looks up at the back wall, covered in pieces of plastic—some small, some large and oddly shaped—up its entire 60-foot height. None of… Read more »